Big Island Chocolate Festival

 

 

 

The cacao plant is starting to make big inroads in the chocolate market on the Big Island of Hawaii. This relatively new commodity is driving huge demand for locally grown cacao and creating new markets in  bean to bar, chocolate purveyors and chocolatiers, secondary finished products, restaurant inspired chocolate creations and food fanciers using the raw product to create some amazing new chocolate inspirations.


Supporting this new fledging crop, the newly formed Kona Chocolate Association was established to promote and educate the general public and buying market of locally grown Hawaiian cacao. The association's main focus is to educate and create outreach opportunities for cacao and chocolate products. The association created a new venue, the Big Island Chocolate Festival, which is celebrating its second year of Chocolate festivities, seminars and gala events. Partnering with hospitality, educational groups and local media to bring more  awareness and interest in the marketplace, this festival has quickly become a destination spot for chocolatiers and their supporters to enjoy all the activities centered on cacao and chocolate creation.

 

 

 

The chocolate festival is a chocoholic fantasy dream come true with alot of chocolate inspired activities geared to the enthusiasts. This three day celebration of everything centering around chocolate included chocolate demonstrations, chocolate farm tours, chocolate competions and of course an ample opportunity to see and savor chocolate at its best.

 

 

Student participation from the culinary schools around Hawaii brought out the best in group collaborations and imaginative creations. The attention to detail and focused concentration of the students to make nothing but the best shows the anticipation and excitement to the culinary events.

Ah, it was so hard to just pick one as a favorite dessert or savory presentation an the gala night presentation. Chocolate preparations were all on display from chocolate confectioners, bean to bar creators, chefs and chocolatiers were all putting on an amazing show.

Fortunately, a judging panel chose sweet and savory winners with the culinary team at the Fairmont Orchid receiving both sweet and savory award. They also won the people's choice award for the delicious sample below,cocoa dusted spicy ahi cone with truffle orange vinagrette and chocolate nibs.

Here's a sample of other sweet and savory dishes and chocolate inspirations from the gala evening event.

You get a delicous bite with this chocolate infused Kau pork belly from the Hilton Waikoloa, made with 72% Waialua chocolate from Oahu, pickled daikon and carrots and chile cilantro in a chocolate char siu sauce

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Executive chef Donald Wressel from Guittard chocolate was busy working on a floral chocolate fantasy masterpiece. It was amazing, but I'm wondering who got away with this forty pounder at the end of the event, wish I had a big enough bag to haul this puppy away!

The beautiful floral details to this chocolate sculpture.

A very odd and yet delicious mixture of sensations presented was the Big Island Hog Balls made with all local ingredients including nice big chunks of Hawaiian bacon, I think I polished off a good third of this platter alone!

The sold out event at the Fairmont Orchid was truly a chocolate connoisseur's tasting experience, and it also raised funding for equipment at a local Hawaiian culinary school and a community amphitheature at a charter school at Kaleakekua.





Its always great to support and sample locally made ingredients and finished products like Hawaiian grown chocolate and the Kona chocolate association and their supporters are making great efforts to promoting Hawaiian products and events so that more people can appreciate these products.


To see more images of the three day event, please visit my flickr page.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12701042@N04/sets/72157633085707831/

Not a Pretty Picture…

Even though I’ve blogged about the drought happening here in Hawaii, the rains have been bleak. Normal rain patterns throughout the islands are between 10 to 20 percent of normal for the year which is a bad sign for our islands.

Jess at Children of the Corm did a fantastic and comprehensive post on the effects of El Nino and the areas that have dramatically been impacted (great job Jess ).  Looking at the graphs displayed, the El Nino trends show the rainfall for Hawaii is predicted to be 40 percent below normal, not as severe as the actual 10-20 percent of normal that is actually happening. I never really thought too much about this until I realized in our local news channels that more coverage have been occurring about drought situations on our islands.

Things are even more complicated here on the east side of the island due to the fact since over 40 percent of households are not serviced by county water, we rely on primarily catchment systems for our water needs.  Lack of rain can make up some dire outcomes in a relatively short timeframe for larger households.

Since there are alot of people that do not understand how catchment systems work, I have them photographed below.


Water is primarily collected on rainy days through one’s own roof collecting from the gutters into a large catchment tank, the average size is about 10 thousand gallons to cover a regular household. (these tanks are about 6 feet tall and around 12 feet in diameter, I know really ugly)


From the catchment tank, water is then pumped into the house and through four whole house filters (below in blue) and then through a UV system to the right that takes out most of the impurities, it is then stored in the water heater for any heating.




This is total overkill, but I also have a reverse osmosis system under the kitchen sink for drinking purposes, it kills 99.9 % of all bacteria and impurities. There are alot of households that don’t even have filtration systems outside of just one whole house filter, I wouldn’t even consider drinking that tap water.



Since I’ve been using my water sparingly my tank is still at 30 percent of capacity, larger households that quickly run out have to order water through several water companies which are working non-stop to due to the crisis situation.  A truck filled with four thousand gallons will cost you around $150 per truck load and that will fill up less than half of a catchment tank. If your lucky to have ordered your water at least two weeks in advanced, then you will get your water…if not then you might have to jump into the ocean to take a bath until your turn comes up.

On another post, I’ll show you what I have to do to my poor trees and plants that I’ve started growing on a raw parcel of land that will be eventually where I will retire, since there is no water available there, the manual process of getting the plants watered is intensive and not a fun experience.

A Seft-Sustainabile Hawaii....Getting there...

Sustainability has been on alot of people's radar here in East Hawaii lately, thats why the Puna Sustainability Expo has come into fruition with the outstanding support of the kanaka council, malama o puna and other local organizations.


I decided to check out the expo to see what's viable, and what I can learn and do immediately to live a better, greener, and healthier lifestyle.

I'm amazed by the turnout for this event even in the middle of a major storm front. For being the 2nd annual event held in Puna, there were alot of participants that covered the gamut from recyling, organic farming, invasive species, new energy technology, raising bees and making honey and so on.



Following are some participants that I ended up talking with and gaining a better understanding what they were doing and how I can also following in their footsteps....

From sustainable show

The Master Gardeners are very active in East Hawaii, sponsor senior container garden seminars, childrens educational garden talks, fruit fly eradication techniques and a future ethnobotanical garden.

From sustainable show

Having your own chickens is a very popular hobby here...I just might have to pick up a couple of these cuties.

From sustainable show

Recycle Hawaii is very active with reducing our overloaded dumps and increasing recycling centers throughout the island to increase recycled options like paper products, green waste, plastics and glass/aluminum that actually gets recyled into many new uses sold abroad or within the islands. They have been active with community clean ups, illegal dump sites erradication, education in schools, and sponsoring artists talking about the benefits of recycling.

From sustainable show

Paper products, utensils and sterno made with cane sugar are all biodegradable products and are available through Sustainable Island Products in Hilo.

From sustainable show

Puna Geothermal is producing more power with the addition of new heat usuage wells along with their steam production wells. They produce an equivalent of 36 megawatts or enough power to supply over 25,000 households in the Big Island alone along with other areas. They are creating a stable source of energy and saving over 5 million barrels of oil consumption and expanding to other islands as well.

From sustainable show

Sawyer Water Filtration is a portable and potible water filtration process that provides a low cost filtration service compared to large scale catchment systems which are predominant in this environment. This beats having to go out to the county water spigots regularly with those small gallon containers.

From sustainable show

Cool pic of a guy that cuts out tires into fun things like swings and garden containers.

From sustainable show

Growing your own honey is a popular hobby that is starting to get more attention due to the declining bee populations in Hawaii. Classes and kits are available through Best Big Island Bees.

From sustainable show

LEDs are starting to become more common in the marketplace...hopefully they'll start coming out with a better yellow glow version down the road...florescent just doesn't work well on my skin....